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I’ve been a Una Belle Townsend fan since I read Grady’s in the Silo back in 2003. I’ve bought her books for family members and I’ve used them in the classroom.

Last year, the boys in my fourth grade Reading Lab made a year-long project out of Townsend’s Toby and the Secret Code. Our word wall always contained a mix of English and Spanish words. After we read Toby, a story with reference to the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I, our multi-lingual wall also included Choctaw words.

Townsend’s latest picture book may be my favorite yet. Clancy is one of those rare stories that doesn’t have one scene too many. It starts where it should and ends on just the right word.

Clancy is a charming goat who likes the taste of wood even if he doesn’t care much for nails. Sorry, but I’m not giving away any more of the story. You’ll have to read it for yourself, then you’ll want to find a classroom of second graders with whom to share it.

I bet they laugh as heartily as you do.

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